


The Implement

by Adsecula



Category: Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Imperial Officers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 04:05:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5033062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adsecula/pseuds/Adsecula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piett tries to run an officers' meeting, in the aftermath of Darth Vader rudely interrupting it with a bit of murder. One shot for a writing challenge!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Implement

Vader had done it again.

He had arrived at their meeting and had stated his disappointment at a freshly discovered blunder. He had choked the man responsible for it, and left without a further word. Piett hated when he did that.

Besides which, having a dead man resting his face in a soup bowl did - to put it lightly - create a slightly uncomfortable and abrupt end to the fleet officers’ weekly lunch meeting.

Piett called over a few junior officers via comlink, to take away the final remains of the unfortunate Admiral Kohl. The sad thing was, he reflected, how much of a standard procedure this had become.

‘Formidable creature’, Rear Admiral Chiraneau shuddered. ‘I begin to see why Vader is kept around.’

Piett kept silent, already putting together a plan in his mind. They would have to cope without Kohl. He thought quickly. Admiral Dobro was too risky a choice, as he was on occasion quite stubborn and fickle. He would also have to keep Chiraneau in his usual place. The man had been promoted by Piett himself, but Piett still felt he was not the right officer for leading less conventional battle forms.  
Piett’s eyes swept over the assembly and finally steadied on one individual sitting opposite himself. He nodded to himself, deciding he would shift Admiral Sloane to replace Kohl’s position. She was new here and quite young, yes, but she hopefully had a sharp enough mind to adapt to new circumstances.

‘That masked monster’s track record in bringing down rebel fractions does not make me despise him any less’, Dobro growled, tugging at his whiskers. Dobro hailed from the same academy as Kohl, and had been fond of him.

‘ _I_ can’t thoroughly despise him, as I cannot but feel some sympathy for his condition’, Chiraneau whispered, glancing in the direction where Vader had left. Dobro gritted his teeth loudly in response. Chiraneau shrugged and began to read over the intel on his datapad, but made a final off-handed comment:

‘Have you ever _wanted_ to _hate_ someone?’

Piett thought about it, even as a faint murmur of agreement echoed from the others.

‘Not really’, he shook his head. ‘For myself, I suppose I either feel something - or I don’t. There’s no _want_ about emotions. They come and they pass, I can’t will them into being. I can only keep them in check.’

‘Ever the cool-blooded pragmatist’, Dobro remarked. ‘No hatred towards Vader plagues our Admiral Piett - no fears either, I suppose?’

A few of the others laughed nervously. Piett frowned, but did not otherwise feel much annoyance. He merely took into account Dobro’s current pained state, yet also mentally recorded the disrespect. Piett always took care to remember the full facts about people when it came to decisions.

‘Come, don’t be so self-denying, Admiral’, Dobro went on. ‘We’ve all been present in holo reporting. Vader’s effect on you when you are next to him is visible, whether you are aware of it or not. You look ready to sprint off.’

‘As would anyone who has had to be in his presence when he’s angry, Dobro’, Sloane spoke out.

Sloane had been a mostly quiet presence at the meeting. However, her datapad page was already almost filled out with notes, Piett noticed with approval.

‘Well’, Dobro told her, ‘It’s one thing for you, who -’

Piett gently lifted a hand to stop him.

‘Dobro - _enough_ , please. Make no mistake, I _am_ terrified. Overwhelmingly so, when he’s breathing down my neck and expecting an error. I ignore it as best as I can.’

He lifted an eyebrow at Dobro, who had snorted.

‘Not because I want to _hide_ it. Anyone _sensible_ knows Lord Vader is terrifying. There is no shame in fear. I just try not to let... visceral elements like that distract me from my main goals.’

‘And what would those be?’

‘Staying calm and completing my tasks. Trying not to get all of us killed.’

Dobro fell silent. But there was more that Piett hadn’t said.

Vader did not care if anyone feared him or not, apart from it inspiring obedience and hard work. He gained no personal satisfaction from Piett trying hard not to tremble when the Sith Lord was in his most vicious moods.  
On the other hand, something about Lord Vader felt as if the man deeply _wanted_ to be despised. Whether to provide power for himself or even as some strange self-inflicted punishment, who knew. Piett merely did not see why he was obliged to provide Vader with any such satisfaction.

‘Forgive me, Admiral. I had spoken out of place’, Dobro said weakly. ‘But I do not understand, how can you not hate the man? How can you not wish, on some level at least, that he gets a taste of his own medicine? I know he is our finest enforcer, but the man is clearly unhinged.’

Piett’s brow wrinkled in mild confusion.

‘I... With Lord Vader, well, his method is nothing _personal_. He merely punishes failures, terminally. As an example, he did not hold Admiral Ozzel in any high regard, but he murdered him for his critical mistakes. Not out of any grudge.’

‘And Vader certainly did not loathe poor Needa, who was after all only taking the blow for his crew members’, Chiraneau agreed.

‘Exactly. His lordship carries out the Emperor’s will and that is the extent of his being. He is wholly unforgiving, yes, but dutiful and of unquestionable loyalty.’

‘He is trying very hard to be a killing machine, is what he’s doing to us’, Dobro sighed.

‘Not a _machine_. A cyborg of efficiency’, remarked Sloane. She smiled thinly. ‘Believe me, I know the type. And I understand what Admiral Piett is saying. Vader is merely a tool of our Emperor.’

‘A walking and talking one, but an instrument none the less’, Chiraneau put in.

Piett pensively watched the empty seat where the latest victim of the Empire had been talking with his comrades until minutes ago, alive and well. That the man had been an imperial instead of a rebel, it was no distinguishing fact for his final fate.

He was dead only because he had not been useful enough to continue to live.

It was certainly a thing to remember as a lesson.

Piett cleared his throat uncomfortably.

‘Does one hate the hand that delivers the punishment, or the mind that orders it? No matter. We begin to delve too far into philosophy here, if not outright treasonous talk. Let us continue our meeting. There is nothing left to say.’

After all, what was there to say - what was there to _hate_ \- about a man who was but an _implement?_

**Author's Note:**

> A very quick fic based on a character writing prompt on tumblr! This one's was: “Have you ever wanted to hate someone?”
> 
> I do believe in scared Piett... But I think of him as a quietly stubborn personality, who'd continue to plow his way through anything: even if it terrifies him.  
> So sorry if he or the other characters are a bit off, or their perceptions of Vader, as I have not read much additional materials on them. (I am also certain I oversimplify imperial protocols and relationships, but it makes for easy interactions.)


End file.
